[Steven Lake]

Well, getting them in for me is the easy part. Well, sorta easy. It's like 50 or so cases of books just for my stuff alone. But by the time the show is done, you're typically taking orders because you ran out of books towards the end of the third day of the show. And that's just Gencon. Dragoncon is even more so.

As for getting the books in, we usually caravan down for Gencon, and spread out our books (I go with one other author to the event and we split the table fee and share the table, cause it's better to divide the costs between you and another, as it makes your overall costs less) between several vehicles. Three to be exact, each one packed to the roof with cases of books. Now Dragoncon, since you need quite a few more books for that, you get a uhaul and you caravan down with each of you carrying a trailer, or filling your vehicle with books. It takes two trailers and three vehicles to get them all down there.

As for carrying them in, that's easy. They won't let you drive inside with your stuff, but you can bring large carts to move your stuff around. Some places will rent them to you. If you can't rent one, you can get a nice dolly from Menards or one of the other big warehouse building supply places, like Lowes and so on. Then you just stack your stuff onto them (I recommend getting a dolly with the ability to be lowered onto 4 wheels) and make a couple trips and load up your booth with as many boxes as will fit, and then leave whatever is left in the trailer. If you run low during the day (You really should pack your booth as full as you can get with boxes behind your table, and still comfortably move around) you can always go grab more. If you need to stock up in the morning, you'll have time before the floor opens to bring in more boxes.

As for how I get all those books, I buy them from my publisher at printing cost + a small service fee. Also, the larger your purchase size, the cheaper the printing costs, and thus the cheaper your book costs. Also, buying from your publisher (I'm referring to print copies, mind you, although you *can* do ebooks on cd if you like, which I highly recommend doing) is how you get print copies for signings. As for how you'd get an ebook on cd, well, you'd have to work that out with your publisher.

And lastly, do you need to stay at the table all day, every day of the show? Not really. If there are more than one of you there (I highly recommend having no less than 2 of you at the table), which will free you periodically to leave and do other things. And as I said before, it's best to do it with at least one other author. Also, I recommend doing what I call a sales tag team. IE, you help the others sell their books, and they help you sell yours, while each of you are trying to sell your own. Also, if you have print copies, or posters, or anything else that can be signed, and you need to step away from the table, be sure to leave behind at least two cases of signed print copies, and at least 20 or more signed copies of other things if you have additional items there for sale that can be signed.

Going to conventions to sell books is mostly about selling print copies of your books, posters of characters and book covers, ebooks on CD, audiobooks, and other tangible products to the visiting guests. And believe it or not, for every 1 ebook on cd, or just one ebook in general that I sell, I easily sell 10 print copies. Now that's not a knock against ebooks, but rather a fact, that when people leave they want something tangible they can hold in their hands, and for some reason they view print books as a bigger bang for their buck, and a more valuable asset than ebooks. That may change at some point, but for now that's the way it is.